[Co-written by Neeta Lind and Meteor Blades]
Sean Wang, known for 14 years at Daily Kos as BruinKid, passed away May 19. During his time here, he wrote almost 1,000 diaries and 21,241 comments. He wrote mostly about the evening political TV shows such as The Daily Show, Colbert Report and Bill Maher. He spent lots of time in community diaries such as Night Owls and was an active participant in election diaries.
About 200 people attended his memorial service on June 15, 2018, at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. A dozen Daily Kos members attended.
After a few family members, friends, and colleagues described Sean similarly at the service—brilliant, outgoing, ebullient, energetic, passionate, and on-and-on in the same vein—it was clear he was the same person to everyone who knew him, his infectious smile bringing joy to all. Even though he blogged behind his pseudonym until some of us met him in person at Yearly Kos in 2006, many in the community came to know and love him as Sean.
UCLA was a crucial part of Sean’s life. He received his undergraduate in mathematics, a master’s degree in mathematics, and a doctorate in statistics at UCLA, totaling 16 years. He also taught there and was extremely active in supporting all the Bruin sports events.
SkyRose Chapel
Sean’s cousin Andrew Wang gave the eulogy:
Program and customary objects given to mourners. The red envelope contained a coin, red thread and a piece of candy. The coin is to ensure one returns home safely. The candy must be consumed that day and before going home. The envelope with coin, sweet should not be taken home. The red thread should be taken home and tied to the front doorknobs of the guests’ homes to keep evil spirits away.
Thank you for joining us today. We have gathered to remember our colleague, our family member, our friend Sean Wang who unexpectedly passed away from heart failure on May 19. Sean is survived by his father Tai Jan, originally from Jiangxi, China, and his mother Shean Lin, originally from Anhui, China. His parents both immigrated to the United States and earned advanced degrees in computer science and engineering from … UCLA. As we all know, UCLA would be a happy and recurring theme in Sean’s life.
Sean Eric Wang was born at Long Beach Memorial Hospital just after Thanksgiving on November 28, 1979, and spent his earliest years living in Seal Beach. As Sean’s parents were busy working professionals at Xerox and Rockwell, he grew up in the care of his maternal grandparents for his first two years, and then his paternal grandparents for his next two years. These early years spent with his accomplished grandparents left a lasting impression on Sean and created a solid foundation for his own accomplishments later.
BruinKid when he was a kid. As you can see, the UCLA fandom started early.
When Sean was about 4 years old, his parents hired Mrs. Rosa Amaya from El Salvador as their housekeeper. Over the next 14 years, she helped care for Sean, taking him to school, cooking for him, and teaching him Spanish all the way until he left for college. Honestly, it’s no wonder Sean became one of the top Spanish speakers in his high school class!
Sean was such a bright and precocious young boy, always doing things he liked and persistently focusing on finishing the things he started. I thought you might like to know some interesting things about Sean as a youngster:
- He could walk before he was 1 year old;
- He started counting numbers a short while later;
- He learned to multiply up to 9x9 at 2-½ years old;
- As a toddler, he carried around a plaid-colored stuffed toy hippo that he kissed and loved very much;
- His maternal grandmother taught him Chinese poems when he was just 1, and he was able to memorize many Chinese poems by the time he turned 3, including one hanging on the wall at home that included 280 Chinese characters.
- Like many kids, Sean liked Legos … but he especially loved puzzles with over 1,000 pieces and 3-D pieces, rare coins, and reading books. Among other books, he had a full set of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery novels.
- Notably, Sean became a strict Buddhist vegetarian starting from the age of 12. With encouragement from his mom, he displayed tremendous willpower and dealt with social inconveniences to honor his lifelong commitment.
In 1985, Sean’s family moved to Palos Verdes Estates, where he enrolled in Lunada Bay Elementary School. He was a Cub Scout, and his father TJ served as the Cubmaster for six years. Sean later attended Palos Verdes Middle School followed by Palos Verdes High School. While at PV High, he developed a huge interest in Drama and joined the Drama Club. He truly enjoyed drama as a personal passion and had the good fortune to perform in eight different plays! I remember seeing him in “The Pirates of Penzance” … gleefully coming out smiling … his glasses shining … and happily belting out his swashbuckling lines and songs.
As I recall, Sean applied to only one college … anyone want to take a guess? The University of California at Los Angeles!! There was clearly no other option in his mind. Sean started his freshman year in 1997 and proceeded to spend the next 16 years pursuing:
- 4 years of undergraduate mathematics;
- 6 years of graduate mathematics resulting in a M.S.; and
- 6 years of graduate statistics, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2013.
At one point, and frankly a tiny bit to his parents’ concern, he considered enrolling in political science, which I’m certain would have set a record for a professional student. Sean later worked as a post-doctorate in bio-statistics, and most recently joined NBC Universal Media in February 2017, where he enjoyed working in the field of data mining and analysis.
I’m pretty sure you already know that UCLA is the place Sean loved the most! He gave everything to UCLA. He loved UCLA sports, from basketball to football to all other NCAA and club sports in between, having attended almost all of UCLA's sporting events over the past 20 years. He was an avid supporter at games, and I know many of us recognized him covered in Bruin colors, bouncing up and down as part of “The Den.” Between math and statistics, Sean also supported academics working as a teaching assistant for about eight years, and consistently winning student recognition for excellent TA work. This was a natural outcome since he loved to teach, he cared about his students, and as usual he wanted to do the best job he could.
Nearly 20 years ago, Sean developed a strong interest in American politics. Sean used to call his parents and talk for hours about Democrats and Republicans in every state, which his parents found both amazing and educational. He participated as an active member of political organizations including Bruin Democrats, the Daily Kos, and Netroots Nation. Did you know that he attended the Democratic National Convention every year?
As we think about Sean's life of 38-½ years, we can honestly agree that he lived a rich and rewarding life. He wasn’t into money or material possessions; he didn’t follow the latest fashion trends; and he certainly never cared for fame or power. Sean just wanted to be Sean and live life his own way. As he lived his life and tried to understand things that he didn't quite understand at first, he would often ask himself:
- What would God say about the matter; and
- Is this in accordance with Nature’s way?
Sean was always happy and optimistic, and proved that he lived by strong principles. All his life he focused on spending time doing things he liked doing, which his family supported hugely. Although we did not hear it often, we knew that he loved his parents, his grandparents, his uncles and aunts, and his many cousins.
We are at a loss as to why Sean left us so early. Why could he not stay with us for another 50 years of productive working and happy living? But we still feel peaceful as we reflect on his time with us, remembering that he shared nearly 40 years of happiness, mutual experiences, and great memories with us. We sincerely believe that Sean will be equally happy in his next life, and we know we will be reunited with him again someday.
Thank you, Sean, for being a part of our lives.
Inside the memorial program, Sean’s family included four pages of the wonderful comments they found about him at social media sites after his death was announced. These comments provided much comfort to his parents. They had had no idea how many people Sean had touched.
The attendees from UCLA were asked to give the Bruin 8-Clap for Sean:
At the interment site we were all given a single flower and a stick of burning incense. One by one we placed the incense in an altar and a flower on his casket.
Sean’s Buddhist temple members burned paper representing money, a paper computer screen and some other symbols so Sean would have those in the afterlife.
The temple members chanted continuously as Sean was placed in the earth and covered up.
I obtained a copy of a wonderful slide show of Sean’s life that will be played at his Memorial Tribute during the Pub Quiz at Netroots Nation this year. Sean was an extremely active participant there.
It was a beautiful ceremony, and I’m glad Daily Kos could support it. BruinKid will continue to be missed here.
Readers of Daily Kos and Sean’s friends
L-R: pico, theKK, thereisnospoon, RLMiller, Shockwave, Sam, gmats, Meteor Blades, susans, Murphy and Neeta Lind (Dretutz not pictured)
[As with other members of Daily Kos who have passed away, BruinKid has been given the Infinite Mojo RIP badge in his profile, which will remain as long as Daily Kos lives.]